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George Ticknor's Study Abroad in 1815 Germany The William & Mary Educational Review Volume 3 Issue 1 Article 8 11-1-2014 Accidental Agent of Change: George Ticknor's Study Abroad in 1815 Germany Leslie Bohon College of William & Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/wmer Part of the European History Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Bohon, Leslie (2014) "Accidental Agent of Change: George Ticknor's Study Abroad in 1815 Germany," The William & Mary Educational Review: Vol. 3 : Iss. 1 , Article 8. Available at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/wmer/vol3/iss1/8 This Articles is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in The William & Mary Educational Review by an authorized editor of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Accidental Agent of Change: George Ticknor’s Study Abroad in 1815 Germany Leslie Bohon Abstract The historian Herbst (1965) posited that “scholarship . like most human endeavors, [is] given [its] distinguishing character by the specific time and place in which [it is] pursued” (p. vii). The distinguishing character of U.S. higher education at the turn of the nineteenth century was transition. Indeed, in the early 1800s, U.S. educators were struggling to determine the future of higher education in the United States, igniting discussions and disagreements concerning everything from the purpose of education, to curriculum and pedagogy, and to student life (Herbst, 1965). Yet, answers did not appear to be forthcoming from within the young nation’s colleges, encouraging a growing trend to seek answers abroad. Early academicians looked to German universities as models of ideal higher education institutions (Gore, 2005). To import ideas that would shape U.S. higher education, U.S. academicians sent young scholars to Germany. One of the first scholars to study abroad was George Ticknor. This paper examines Ticknor’s study-abroad observations and personal quest for knowledge, highlighting the elements of the philosophy of education, curriculum and pedagogy, and student life in nineteenth century German higher education. The author argues that early study-abroad students in Germany, such as George Ticknor, brought home profound observations which influenced the institutions of nineteenth century U.S. higher education. Keywords: George Ticknor, study abroad, German higher education, nineteenth century U.S. higher education 38 The William & Mary Educational Review At the turn of the nineteenth century, U.S. higher education was preparing for transition. The country and its needs were outgrowing the educational system of the time (Hofstadter, 1952). Academicians and some of the general population questioned the applicability of the classical liberal arts curriculum that had been in place since the foundation of Harvard in 1636. Questions arose about how to approach education as well as its accessibility. Unrest marked students’ everyday life; they yearned for freedom from controlling faculty and administrators. Answers did not appear to be forthcoming from within the young nation’s colleges, encouraging a growing trend to seek answers abroad. Gore (2005) suggested that “early [U.S.] educators and administrators looked to Europe, and particularly to Germany, for models as they shaped all their institutions of higher learning” (p. 35). In fact, the nineteenth century marked a trend of U.S. student migration, as almost 9,000 U.S. students pursued foreign study in German universities (Herbst, 1965). U.S. academicians were anxious to pursue the opportunity to send young scholars to Germany and thus import ideas that would shape U.S. higher education. One such young scholar was George Ticknor. Tired of an uninspiring life as a lawyer and thirsty yet for scholarship, George Ticknor left his law practice to study abroad in a country considered exceptional for its higher education: Germany (Ticknor, Hillard, & Ticknor, 1876). Of his life as a lawyer and his subsequent departure for Germany, Ticknor explained, But I tired of the life, and my father understood it; for I was very frank with him, and told him – what he knew very well – that I was more occupied with Greek and Latin than with law-books . I therefore gave up my office, and turned all my attention and effort to learning what I could of the German language, and German universities, to which my thoughts and wishes had been already turned as the best places for education. (p. 11) Much credit goes to young U.S. scholars, such as George Ticknor, for importing insights from German universities to serve as a model for U.S. higher education in the nineteenth century. When George Ticknor decided to study in Germany in the early 1800s, he was filled with hopes of what he would personally gain abroad, but like most travelers, was unaware of the wide range of experiences that he would encounter. This paper examines Ticknor’s study-abroad observations and personal quest for knowledge, highlighting the elements of the philosophy of education, curriculum and pedagogy, and student life in nineteenth century German higher education. In fact, some of Ticknor’s most poignant observations about the philosophy of education, curriculum and pedagogy, and student life foreshadowed the transitions that higher education in the U.S. would soon thereafter experience. These profound changes can be attributed to the influence of Germany’s great universities and the accounts of the first U.S. students who studied there. The Turn of the Nineteenth Century: U.S. Higher Education in Transition The historian Herbst (1965) posited that “scholarship . like most human endeavors, [is] given [its] distinguishing character by the specific time and Accidental Agent of Change: George Ticknor 39 place in which [it is] pursued” (p. vii). The distinguishing character of U.S. higher education at the turn of the nineteenth century was transition. Indeed, U.S. educators were struggling to determine the future of higher education in the United States, igniting discussions and disagreements concerning everything from the purpose of education, to curriculum and pedagogy, and to student life. An element of U.S. higher education in transition in the early 1800s was the type of student, and consequently, the purpose of higher education. An important mission of colonial colleges was to prepare clergy (Herbst, 1965). Although many colleges continued to be religiously-based at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the period between 1760 (and intensified by the Revolution) through the Civil War witnessed a move toward secularization. The nineteenth century marked the height of this change of purpose when future lawyers, merchants, physicians, and teachers, needing to run burgeoning communities, outnumbered divinity students (Hofstadter, 1952). A changing student body and changing needs of the country brought into question the purpose of higher education. Another element of higher education that generated heated debate was the traditional liberal arts curriculum (Herbst, 1965). From the founding of the first colleges, adherence to the classics of Latin and Greek was valued (Winterer, 1998). Even so, there were some U.S. classical scholars, beginning in 1820, who were among the first professors to take the lead from German universities to study the classics in new ways, to “make the ancient Mediterranean relevant to nineteenth-century America” (p. 112). However, most U.S. colleges defended the traditional adherence to grammar study and recitation. For example, a defense of the liberal arts curriculum was presented by Yale President Jeremiah Day and Professor James Kingsley (1828) in the Yale Report of 1828, in response to opinion that the study of dead languages should be dropped from the curriculum. Day and Kingsley (1828) insisted the purpose of a college was to “lay the foundation of a superior education” by way of the liberal arts curriculum, which they described as the “discipline and furniture of the mind” (p. 278). In other words, a liberal arts curriculum strengthened the mind and stored it with information. Indeed, many universities had no intention to separate from the liberal arts curriculum, as the faculty believed it met their needs to train liberal minds to think (Herbst, 1965). In addition, Day and Kingsley (1828) argued that students should follow the same curriculum because their “prescribed course contains those subjects only which ought to be understood by every one [sic] who aims at a thorough education” (p. 283). Yet, the country’s needs were beginning to vary. Vocational and professional skills were not addressed in the liberal arts curriculum. The new colleges in the West, for example, needed to focus on practical skills to build the frontier (Geiger, 2000). Therefore, college faculty members were actively discussing if and how values and needs were reflected in the curriculum. Closely related to the curriculum was the pedagogy. Many U.S. teaching methods were monotonous: customarily the instructor read from a book or commented on a passage. The students were typically required to recite passages 40 The William & Mary Educational Review every time they attended class (Herbst, 1965). Jackson (2000) summed up the Harvard classroom experience at this time as “lifeless and uninspiring curriculum that failed to address the needs of either the pre-professionals or the scholastically inclined” (p. 52). Indeed, many scholars were beginning to see the prescribed liberal arts curriculum and pedagogy as unfulfilling and impractical antiquities. Finally, student life at the turn of the nineteenth century proved stifling. College staff acted in loco parentis. Thus, all of students’ daily activities were accounted for: studying, eating, sleeping, attending chapel, attending classes. Basically, “college life resembled that of soldiers in their barracks” (Herbst, 1965, p. 27). What had worked for the young U.S. colleges for almost 200 years was becoming less relevant. The time was ripening for U.S. higher education to make changes. Increasingly, the reputation of Germany’s universities encouraged scholars to look toward Germany for what they could not find in U.S.
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